Even if He Doesn't...

Now – if you are ready to prostrate yourselves…and to worship the image I have made, well and good.  But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown into the blazing furnace, and  

what god is there that can deliver you from my power?

Daniel 3:15

When I was a child, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego [henceforth called Shad, Shach and Abe], seemed to be three fellas that rode on Daniel’s coattail.  Sure, they were great guys and all, but it was Daniel that had the remarkable wisdom, the giant faith, the firsthand friendship with the Almighty.  Daniel was the one who stood up to Nebuchadnezzar regarding their daily sustenance, who spent the night with the lions, and who interpreted the king’s dream and saved all their lives.  After all, the little song isn’t called, “Dare to be a Shadrach!”

When we come to the story of the king’s command to worship his ego statue, Daniel was no where to be found.  Perhaps he was out of the province attending to official business.  Whatever the reason, Daniel was not there, and Shad, Shach and Abe had to face the music (literally!) alone.  When the court musicians announced the hour, every man standing on the plain of Dura prostrated themselves before the statue; every man, that is, except Shad, Shach and Abe.

After the dream affair, these three men had been promoted to top leadership positions in Babylon.  It enraged Nebuchadnezzar that they refused to bow to his golden image.  When they were brought before the king, he raged at their insubordination, threatened the end of their lives in the blazing furnace, and mocked their utter helplessness before his might and power.  Shad, Shach and Abe’s answer to their king is one of my favorite passages in the Bible:

O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you 

in this matter.  If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us 

from the furnace of blazing fire, and out of your hand, 

O king, let Him deliver us.

But if not…

be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods 

and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.

O, for a faith that will not shrink,
Though pressed by every foe,
That will not tremble on the brink
Of any earthly woe!